The nature of the gift from heaven.
The Jews demanded "a sign from heaven."
I. THEM DEMAND FOR A FRESH MIRACLE. "What sign then dost thou do, that we may see, and believe in thee? what dost thou work?"
1. They thought they were entitled to demand a fresh miracle, much in advance of the miracle at Bethsaida Julius; because that was, after all, not so remarkable as the miracle of the manna in the wilderness. "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He did give them bread from heaven to eat."
2. They still evidently understood the higher benefit promised by our Lord as material, and not spiritual.
3. They meant, by their seeing and believing in Christ. to reduce faith to a mere matter of sight—a mere belief of truth in the testimony of their senses. They were quite unspiritual in their conceptions.
II. OUR LORD'S ANSWER TO THEIR DEMAND. He corrects their misapprehensions.
1. He asserts that it was not Moses, but God, who fed the people with manna. "Moses gave you not the bread from heaven." It was a truly Divine work to feed two millions of people in the desert from day to day. Therefore there could be no comparison between Moses and Christ.
2. He asserts that the Bread he speaks of is yet material, but spiritual. "But my Father giveth you the true Bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is he who cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."
3. It was continuous in its supply of man's wants. "It cometh down from heaven."
4. It was not limited to one people, but offered to the whole race of man. The age of Jewish particularism was past.